industry

RIAA CEO Cary Sherman walks into tech 'lion's den'

NEW YORK -- No one hooted or jeered when Cary Sherman took the stage today at the Personal Democracy Forum 2012.

That's worth noting, because Sherman is CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group of the top four recording companies, and because the forum crowd was full of politically minded techies that -- it's safe to say -- feel some antipathy for the RIAA. OK, some of these people downright hate the RIAA.

All you have to do to measure the degree of animosity for the RIAA is read the user comments of any … Read more

Radio again seeks to include FM tuners in mobile phones

In the case of a major earthquake, terrorist act or some other disaster, cell phones will be useless, according to radio broadcasters.

Today at a congressional hearing in Washington D.C., broadcasters are expected to tell lawmakers that in emergencies, cell networks become clogged and have proven to be unreliable. What people need are FM tuners built into their handhelds that will enable them to receive radio reports.

That's what Jeff Smulyan, chairman and CEO of Emmis Communications, which owns AM and FM radio stations, is expected to make this argument when he testifies before a House subcommittee on Communications and Technology. … Read more

Lego for girls, this time hardware-hacker style

For Limor Fried, a hardware hacker and leader in the booming maker and do-it-yourself movements, there was never a question of waiting for someone else to jump in and do a better job of inspiring girls than Lego has done with its widely-panned Lego Friends set.

The product was featured on the cover of Bloomberg Business Week last year and drew worldwide attention as the global toy company's first major attempt at showcasing girls in a new set. Still, many Lego fans were upset that the company had focused on well-worn stereotypes and had ignored the modern reality that girls can do pretty much anything they want, whether or not there's pink or purple involved.

For Fried, who runs open-source hardware developer Adafruit Industries, it sounded like it was time for a little culture hacking.

… Read more

Too much hubbub over Supreme Court declining Tenenbaum case

First thing to know about the case involving acknowledged music pirate Joel Tenenbaum is that it will likely go on...and on.

Much is being made about a decision today by the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear Tenenbaum's challenge to a jury ruling against him, one that left him with a $675,000 penalty hanging over his head.

In 2007, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the trade group of the top four record companies, filed a copyright infringement suit against Tenenbaum, a then-college student from Boston who was accused of illegally downloading 31 songs from … Read more

The real business of the DIY movement

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Since 2006, Maker Faire has offered tens of thousands of people an annual celebration of the best and brightest in the do-it-yourself movement.

But while everyone from individual tinkerers who have built small rockets to two people doing amazing things with Diet Coke and Mentos to paper airplane masters and crafters making magic out of felt has had a venue for the last five years to showcase their innovative projects, there's never been a forum for the growing number of people and companies that are developing the new business platforms that are merging manufacturing and making. … Read more

Who is behind murky DDoS attack against The Pirate Bay?

There's a good whodunit developing over at The Pirate Bay, the popular BitTorrent file-sharing service.

An unknown entity has launched a large distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) against The Pirate Bay and rendered the site largely inaccessible for more than a day. The Pirate Bay posted a note to its Facebook page confirming the attack. Site operators wrote: "We don't know who's behind it but we have our suspicions."

Suspicions are all anybody seems to have at this point. Here's a list of the top suspects and where they stand on the issue.

The Motion … Read more

Critics say feds, RIAA too closely linked in music site seizure

Critics of the U.S. government's antipiracy efforts have new ammunition to support claims that authorities are too eager to do the bidding of copyright owners.

Authorities seized Dajaz1.com, a music blog, and held onto it for more than a year before returning the domain to the owners. This only occurred after the government repeatedly failed to produce evidence that the site had violated copyright laws. David Kravets of Wired.com first reported the story.

This appears to be the latest public-relations setbacks for the large entertainment companies lobbying Congress for tougher antipiracy laws. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (… Read more

Apple, Google about to join Dow Jones stock index?

Apple and Google could soon see themselves in the Dow Jones Industrial Average -- perhaps at the expense of a tech pioneer.

The stock index is due for a makeover and the two tech titans wield a lot of influence in financial markets, investment newspaper Barrons reported today (subscription required). The companies "represent major shifts in the global business landscape" in ways that the venerable Hewlett-Packard, Bank of America, and Alcoa do not, Barron's said.

"The guardians of the Dow need to ensure that this benchmark, created in the 19th century, stays relevant for a 21st … Read more

Zombie shooting targets ooze gore on impact

I've been playing Zombie Exodus on my iPad the last few days. The survival horror text game is effective because it leaves so much to my imagination, but that means I also get zombie nightmares. Fun.

I may have a way to dissolve my zombie bad dreams by dispatching some zombies in real life, after a fashion. Zombie Industries offers a line of shooting targets, ranging from entertaining (zombie paper targets) to outright horrifying (bleeding Nazi zombie targets).… Read more